the Folketing, the Danish Parliament, has now elected a new Speaker. This title is generally considered to rank as the second-highest in the state hierarchy, behind only the King or Queen and ahead of the Prime Minister.
In practice, of course, the role is not as powerful as that of Prime Minister. However, the Speaker is still instrumental in setting policy and procedure in the Folketing, which can have significance for the body’s capacity to hold the government to account.
Since 2022, the post has been held by Søren Gade of Venstre. Now, however, it will be held by Henrik Frandsen of the Moderates (Moderaterne).
He has previously served as Minister for Elderly Affairs, leader of the Moderates’ parliamentary group, and mayor of Tønder Municipality.
He has been elected despite a significant scandal that saw one of the government’s confidence-and-supply parties, the Alternative (Alternativet), withdraw its support for his candidacy.
A more politicised role
The role of Speaker of the Folketing has become more politicised than it previously was.
In the 2015–2019 Folketing, the role was held by Pia Kjærsgaard, founder of the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti), which was criticised by many opposition parties at the time.
Gade’s tenure in the role was also controversial, given his decision to keep his post as Chairman of the Board of the Port of Esbjerg. This also led opposition parties to try to topple his leadership.
Frandsen’s scandal
Henrik Frandsen was announced as the incoming Speaker after the new government was established, seemingly as a way to give the Moderates a small win for their otherwise promise-breaking participation in the current government.
However, since mid-September, Frandsen has found his potential accession to the role under threat after TV 2 reported on a property sale he made in 2019.
In 2001, Frandsen had made an agreement with the municipality that 12.4 hectares of his property could not be used for agriculture and would instead be used to bolster the local water environment.
However, as Mayor of Tønder, he managed to obtain an incredibly quick confirmation from the municipality that after 2021 the area could again be used for agriculture. This raised the value of the property substantially ahead of the sale.
The municipality later informed the 2019 buyer that this was a mistake and that, as per the 2001 agreement, the area should instead become protected nature.
The process and the mistakes ended up giving the new buyer the right to use the area for agriculture. However, this raises questions about the 644,800 kroner Frandsen received under the 2001 agreement.
Red-Green Alliance and the Alternative
The government’s two confidence-and-supply parties were unhappy with the scandal and raised concerns.
The Red-Green Alliance’s (Enhedslisten) concerns led Frandsen to acknowledge his mistake and apologise for it.
The Alternative ultimately decided that the controversy was too great for it to support Frandsen’s candidacy for the post. They announced this on Tuesday morning, shortly before the opening of the Folketing.
Inexperienced speaker
Aside from the scandal, Frandsen has also received criticism for being the most inexperienced Speaker of the Folketing in contemporary history.
Frandsen has only been an MP for four years, having first been elected in 2022. By comparison, Gade had been an MP for 21 years by the time he took on the role, Kjærsgaard for 31 years, and Henrik Dam Kristensen, who served from 2019 to 2022, had 29 years of experience.
This has led parties of the right-of-centre blue bloc to criticise Frandsen’s candidacy, with the Danish People’s Party’s Anders Vistisen instead suggesting Peder Hvelplund of the Red-Green Alliance as an alternative candidate.
93 votes for Frandsen
Frandsen still ended up winning the vote for Speaker, wholly uncontested. He received the support of 93 MPs (the government parties plus the Red-Green Alliance).
The rest of the Presidium, the body that leads the Folketing, was also elected, with four other Deputy Speakers.
These were Leif Lahn Jensen of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet), Karsten Hønge of the Green Left (Socialistisk Folkeparti), Jacob Jensen of Venstre, and Morten Messerschmidt of the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti).
